ALBANY — State Health Commissioner Dr. Richard Daines is working to quell fears expressed by some health care workers this week, saying they should put their patients first and get the flu shot.

New York became the only state to mandate the flu shot for people who work in hospitals, home health care settings and outpatient clinics. New York health workers also must get the swine flu vaccine when it becomes available. Otherwise, they will be fired.

Hospitals have been fielding complaints from employees about the mandate, and on Tuesday, a group is holding a protest at the state Capitol. In a recent open letter to workers, Daines argued that health care workers must set aside personal concerns and take the shots to protect vulnerable patients and prevent the spread of influenza.

"The whole point is to look at this in the interest of patients, and their interests are that we get all our health care workers vaccinated," Daines said in an interview.

For a profession that typically achieves a 40 percent flu vaccination rate, it's a tall order.

Nurses, in particular, need to set an example, Daines said. "We know that patients put a lot of credence in what nurses say and do," he said. "Patients tend to wait until the doctor leaves the room and say, 'OK, nurse, tell me the real story.' That's why you'd hope the nursing profession understands that this is where we lead."

Sue Field, a Poughkeepsie nurse who is organizing Tuesday's protest, doesn't want to go along with the state mandate.

"We are intelligent, educated people and we make lifesaving decisions every day, and we don't feel comfortable with the government telling us what I should stick in my body," Field said. He added that nurses worry about the safety of the shots, especially the H1N1 vaccine that she fears was rushed through production.

The protest started with a group of obstetric nurses that Field works with at a Poughkeepsie medical center — she asked that the hospital not be named — and has grown to attract interest from nurses across the state. The New York Liberty Council, a citizens' group that has been hosting many of the local "tea party" protests, has signed on to the event as well. Field has set up a page on Facebook called Healthcare Workers March on Albany.

Many nurses, even those who have received regular flu shots in the past, are upset by the mandate.

"The government has no right to tell you what to do with your health care," said Bonnie Sims, a nurse who works at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady.

Sims said she and many of her colleagues will get the shots because they fear getting fired.

"Research shows that it reduces the risk of getting the flu and lessens the symptoms if you are to contract it," Slattery said. "We have a responsibility to our patients to protect ourselves and our families. If we can't go to work, who's going to take care of our patients?"

At St. Peter's Hospital in Albany about half of the 4,000 workers have been immunized, but there have been complaints, said a hospital spokesman.

For anyone who harbors fears of vaccines, legitimate or not, there are certainly are enough red flags to make them nervous. The federal government has granted H1N1 vaccine makers immunity from lawsuits; the FDA approved four versions of the H1N1 vaccine on Tuesday even though the government's own clinical trials for the vaccine are not complete. Many doses of the H1N1 vaccine will contain thimerosol, a form of mercury that some people believe causes autism although scientific evidence strongly refutes the theory. The government's clinical trials for children and pregnant women are using H1N1 vaccine doses that do not contain thimerosol, although the additive will be in many doses given to the public.

Another fear is the memory of the unusually high incidence of Guillain-Barre Syndrome that occurred in 1976 during a mass vaccination against another strain of swine flu. That vaccination campaign was ultimately canceled.

"We are very frightened," Field said. "We feel like we are going to be lab rats or guinea pigs for the New York state Department of Health."

Daines letter addressed many of the concerns in blunt language. "This is not the time," he wrote, "for uninformed or self-interested parties to attempt to pump air into long-deflated arguments about vaccine safety in general or to use a single 33-year-old episode to deny decades of safety and saved lived achieved by influenza vaccines prepared in the same way as this year's formulation."

In an interview, Daines said it would be like someone refusing to fly because of an airplane accident in 1976.

"For doctors and nurse in particular, it's like having the pilot, the flight crew and the attendant saying, 'We don't trust the airplane,' " Daines said. "What an example it sets for patients."